Otter's Rock

Lovely author, here is my theory about letters: how much detail people want in a letter is HIGHLY variable. Some people (such as myself) prefer if their recip gives LOTS of guidance on their wishes. Some prefer as little as possible so they can be free as a bird. Most are somewhere in between. So! Here's everything including the kitchen sink if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am just not inspired that way."

I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am very rarely disappointed with my gifts. I write long and detailed Dear Author letters because I find such things helpful when I'm writing for other people; if you are like me, here you go! If your style is different and a detailed letter makes you feel hemmed-in, feel free to do what works for you.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks just don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

One thing: I do have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

Please no incest.

( General Likes and Dislikes )

On to the prompts! Please feel free to use these as jumping off points, or ignore if you have an idea that inspires you more.

( Thrawn Trilogy )

( Pride & Prejudice )

( Star Wars Original Trilogy )

( MCU )

( Harry Potter )

( DCEU )

( Crossovers )

( TNG )

So!  I am in the mood for some Lois Lane, Awesome Girl Reporter.  I take me to AO3, and find the Lois Lane tag, and sort it by kudos.  What do I find?

Pages and pages of Clark Kent/Lex Luthor slash (Smallville era) and Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne slash (current movies), with the occasional welcome break for Kara Danvers/Cat Grant femmeslash (Supergirl TV show).  In all of these, Lois is a minor background character who either a) gets our heroes together, b) is the obstacle to them getting together, or c) is off on the casefic aspect of the fic while the main focus is on our heroes getting together.

Now, it's nice to have the occasional femslash thing in there, so it isn't all "Lois Lane Pushed Aside for Whitecock," but still.  I'm not looking for Lois Lane, Minor Supporting Character (and shoved into a one-dimensional box to facilitate someone else's love story).  I want Lois Lane, Awesome Girl Reporter!

Going for the Clark Kent/Lois Lane tag does get me stories where Lois is actually a main character, although also a lot of stories where she's just there to be shoved out of the way for the whitecock pairing.  But while I love CK/Lois Lane fics, it's frustrating that either I'm limited to that or slogging through ENDLESS PAGES OF OTHER STUFF to get to what I really want, which is Lois Lane doing her job and being AWESOME at it.

This is also my problem whenever I'm in the mood for Sam Wilson fics.  In a very high percentage of fics, he is there to facilitate the Steve/Bucky angst.

And here's the thing: if AO3's character tags were broken up into "main character" and "supporting character," when I want stories focusing on Lois Lane or Sam Wilson or any of the host of interesting characters who get shoved aside in favor of the Major Pairing, I could easily find fics where they are the focus!

... when you go into your WIP file and read a story and go "wow, this is awesome, I want to know what happens next!" ... and can't figure out where you were planning to go from where it ends.  Or think up a new plan.

The story in question is a Criminal Minds/Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles crossover where, after ZeiraCorp gets taken out by a drone, the CM team gets called in to profile Sarah Connor and try to figure out just WTF is going on.  The fic fragment is basically the briefing where they're going over all of Sarah Connor's history and just ... baffled, because someone as delusional as she is should not be able to draw other competent, intelligent people into her delusions, and WTF is up with all these unidentified white males who keep going after her with heavy weaponry?!?  And that's all great, but what do they actually do when they get to California, and what are Sarah and Ellison doing, and ....)

Several of the WIPs I have no real memory of, and some I had forgotten about.  There's another WIP (25k of post-Superman Returns with Kara Zor-El and my take on the prompt that led to ljs_lj writing Biopsychology) that I have no clue what's supposed to happen next with the action plot; this is less annoying, because I'm pretty sure the reason it petered out in the first place is because I never had any idea what would happen next with the action plot.  I have Lex Luthor refining Kryptonite rubble from the continent he tried to make, but I don't know what he's going to do with it.  I think I stopped writing in the hope that some nefarious plot would percolate through my brain if I put it on the back burner, and it hasn't worked.  And I love the story, and I want to know what happens next! ... and I don't.

Also, the combination of extreme cold and less-than-normal amounts of snow on the ground for this time of year has led to two water main breaks in town in the last two weeks, the first of which was only on the next block over.  My pipes keep gurgling, and I'm pretty sure it's got something to do with that.

I'm feeling the need to write something different. You know what that means; fic prompt time. So. Anyone who wants me to write them a fic, comment here. Fics will be at least 500 words long. Each person should make at least two requests, of which I will write one. Each request should contain one or more characters from the list below and a short prompt (theme, quote, etc). ONE request may be for a sequel/timestamp/missing scene/etc. from a fic I have already written. (For instance, I would not be averse at all to writing something more in the universe where Maria von Trapp from the Sound of Music was a Potential.) Crossovers are acceptable, provided I am familiar with both fandoms. I do not write slash or explicit sex.

BSG:
The Cylons (including the Final Five)
Bill Adama
Laura Roslin

Once Upon A Time:
Emma
Snow
Charming
Henry

Stargate: SG-1
Teal'c
Sam
Daniel
General Hammond
Sha're
Jacob Carter

Superman:
Clark/Kal-El/Superman
Lois
Richard
Jimmy
Perry
Kon-El
Martha Kent
Jonathan Kent

Batman:
Bruce/Batman
Lucius Fox
Jim Gordon
Tim Drake
Babs Gordon
Terry McGinnis

Wonder Woman (as long as you don't mind a mish-mash of all DC canon regarding her)

Babylon 5:
Lennier
Marcus Cole
Delenn
Vir
G'Kar
Stephen Franklin
Susan Ivanova
Londo

Star Wars:
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Princess Leia
Mara Jade
Luke Skywalker
Han Solo
Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader
Padme Amidala

Star Trek:
Spock
Amanda
Sarek
Scotty
Uhura
Sulu
Troi
Geordi
Dax
Sisko
Kira
Odo
Garak

Vorkosigan:
Any

Terminator: SCC
John
Sarah
Derek
Cameron
Ellison
Weaver
John Henry

Marvel Movieverse:
Steve Rogers
Peggy Carter
Dr. Erskine
Pepper Potts
Maria Hill
Natasha Romanov
Bucky Barnes
 

Here is my current WIP list:

xover_exchange fic.  (And once it's done, I'll probably have Yuletide to start.)

Desert Between sequel, set several years later focusing on Spock's Vulcan wife.  And what she thinks of the whole situation.  (I'm still not sure this is what would happen, if this is the choice Uhura would make; but laurajv wanted to know what would happen if it did, and upon reflection I realized so did I.)

DS9 original character fic that's been on the backburner for some time but is slowly moving up my priority list.  It began out of my fascination with Vulcans, and my love of Bajor and DS9, and my realization that it was highly unrealistic that the only non-Vulcans we see marry Vulcans are Humans, and there's a whole Federation out there.  So I set out to write a Vulcan/Bajoran love story.  Which then got bogged down.  I have since realized that it is not, in fact, a love story.  It is a gen friendship story, about growing and learning and respecting culture despite differences, and about being in transition.  It's one of those where I'm not sure it will ever be finished, but I like it and so keep going back and fiddling with it.

Batman Beyond--Terry and guns.  A short meditation on guns and the way people react to them that hradzka rightly pointed out needed an actual, you know, plot to go with the philosophy.  I will get back to it some day.

Superman Movieverse/DC fic to the same plot bunny that spurred ljs_lj to write Biopsychology (and are you ever going to get around to writing that new sequel to it?)  My version is quite different, as the plot would focus on/be triggered by Kara Zor-El (Supergirl) arriving on Earth.  It's mostly about her and her issues and what she thinks of Earth and her cousin (and, eventually, his screwed-up love life, which is where the plot bunny comes in).  Since I finished my Richard-focused post-Superman Returns fic "A Family Story," I've had very little motivation to get back to this one, so it's staying on the back burner for now.  Maybe next year.  (I do intend to eventually get back to it.)

BSG AU called Jumping Time (and this may be the only time in my life I've ever been able to come up with a title before I had to post the fic).  Of all my WIPs, the least likely to get finished because while I have quite a number of scenes for it running around my head, I have no plot to tie them together with.  Basically, at the end of the series when Kara jumps the Galactica, instead of finding a new Earth they find themselves back in time about 6 months before the Cylon attack, and decide that the best way to save the Colonies is for the Rebel Cylons and the Final Five to infiltrate the Cylons and stage a coup against the Ones

I have several other plot bunnies, but those are the ones that not only have files, they have files pinned to my start bar so I can access them easily and they will stay in my head.

Title: Self-Knowledge
Author: beatrice_otter 
Word count: 1800
Rating: PG
Fandoms: Superman
Characters: Clark Kent, Kara Zor-El, Lois Lane
Written for: azsapphire  in the asexual_fandom  kink meme.
Summary: Kara’s question makes Clark realize that some of his assumptions about Kryptonians are wrong.

( Three weeks after Kara Zor-El's escape pod crashed on Earth, she asked her cousin Clark a question. )

I need a beta for a 17k-word Superman Returns fic from Richard's point of view.  Help!

Title: Lion-Headed Goddess with Bandages in Her Mouth
Author: Katt (xenokattz)
Rating: Teen (strong language)
Fandom: DCU (aka comic!verse)
Characters: Lois Lane
Summary: I'm Lois Lane. I'm the best investigative reporter living.

Go now.  Run, do not walk, to read this story.

Even if you have no interest in comic books or the media based on them, you MUST read this story.  This is perhaps the best story about a professional woman I've ever read.  This is the Lois I love, the woman who is kickass and Made of Awesome and sharp and witty and strong and is able to balance being her own woman with sharing her life and love with Superman and isn't a bitch.  (I have a strong problems with stories where women can only be strong if they are bitchy, and if they're not bitchy the story is all hearts and flowers and puppy dogs.  Yeah.  This story?  This story is how to do a strong woman right.)

What are you waiting for?  Go!  Read!

So, I submitted four fics to the finish-a-thon and the one that was chosen I'm having more difficulty than I thought I would. It's just ... not inspiring me to write, at all. I feel very blah about it. It would actually be easier to write if I hated it than it is feeling indifferent, I think.

You know, the one I keep saying I've started work on again? (The one that's not from the Biopsychology prompt? ;) ) It's now at fifty-four pages, double spaced. 16k words. And I've been debating about whether it's long enough to need a b-plot, and I keep thinking of other emotional threads that need to get woven through, and that's what keeps stalling me. I don't outline and I write linearly (can't write piecemeal, have tried it and it does not work). When I realize an emotional resonance/theme whatever needs to get brought out, I can't just tell myself I'll put it in later and continue writing; it won't fit into the story from there on out properly if I do, and I'll end up having to tweak the whole thing instead of a few pieces here and there. (Believe me, I've tried.) I have to go back and edit it in, which then gets me out of writing mode and into editing mode, and I get bogged down. Then a while later (weeks, months, whatever--this thing's been my main WIP since January 20, 2007) I get the itch to write more and I add a few pages until I realize that my hindbrain has spun up something else in the meantime that needs to get put in. Most of it is just adding a line here and there, tweaking paragraphs--nothing major, but it takes time and mental energy and gets me out of writing mode and into editing mode. Through it all, I've had this feeling that it really is long enough to need some kind of B plot, and I've been trying to ignore that because since the main plot is an emotional plot the B plot should probably be an action plot, and I suck at action. (This is why I don't tend to write long stuff--I suck at writing action, and the longer a story is the greater the probability that the logic of the plot will demand action to be written.) I have just realized I am an idiot.

Yes, the story requires more action than the angsting it currently has. No, it does not need Lois and Clark to go out on a limb reporting and have Lex Luthor/Mr. Mxy/evil whatevers try to kidnap/kill them. It doesn't even need to have Lois and Clark working on investigating something relatively ordinary. The story isn't about Lois and Clark. It's about Richard. What it needs are flashbacks to earlier events that set up the stuff Richard is angsting about in the main emotional plot. That will be much easier to write, yay. (But I've still thrown myself out of writing mode and into editing mode again on this story, so it's not going to get started tonight.)

Anyway, to whet your appetite and finally get some of this out where people can see it, ( here's the first bit of the first scene as it stands now. )

By the way, ljs_lj, any chance of work on Biopsych three any time soon?  ::blinks innocently::